johnleedraws

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Alexandra Trese, Babaylan-Mandirigma of Manila, Sixth Child of the Sixth Child

#trese #illustration #drawing #art #alexandra trese

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Another one for Foreign Affairs, thanks as always to AD Ed Johnson. Lisa Anderson reviews Grand Delusion: The Rise and Fall of American Ambition in the Middle East, by Steven Simon. Simon argues that America does not understand (and has never understood) the region and that misunderstanding has lead to decades of conflict.

#illustration #drawing #johnleedraws #john lee #art #foreign affairs #editorial

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Another one for Foreign Affairs, thanks AD Ed Johnson. For Patrick Radden Keefe's review of Matthew Connelly's The Declassification Engine: What History Tells Us About America's Top Secrets. I used open-sourced, redacted US intelligence documents about sordid things like death squad funding, nuclear weapon blast radii, and casualty estimates for the "waves." Just some more light fare in the editorial illustration world.

#illustration #drawing #art #johnleedraws #john lee #illustrator

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Today for Qingming, I want to offer up all the treats in the world: slivers of corn husks, tiny catnip pillows, warm laps, head scratches. I want to bridge the here and the there with an inferno of morning sun, casting squares on the floor. Missing my friends that I lost this year, Eponine and Happy.

#qingming #cats #johnleedraws #drawing

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For Foreign Affairs Book Review, Fredrick Logevall’s review of Kennan: A Life Between Worlds by Frank Costigliola.

George F. Kennan was a US diplomat who was one of the architects for the policy of containment of the USSR during the Cold War, a policy which he later criticized. He famously wrote the “Long Telegram” from Moscow in 1946, explaining Soviet rationales, and the “X” article in Foreign Affairs, which he wrote under the pseudonym of Mr. X and outlined the policy of containment.

My AD Ed Johnson was able to source the original X Article from FA and we used it in this collage. Also used Soviet Era military maps, which meticulously documented the entire world, including the Pentagon.

#illustration #john lee #johnleedraws #art #drawing

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Wei Yingluo from Yanxi Palace aka Consort Ling aka Empress Xiaoyichun aka started from the bottom now we here incarnate

#illustration #drawing #art #wei yingluo #yanxi palace #johnleedraws #john lee

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These two pieces got into the Society of Illustrators 65 Exhibition under Editorial thanks to the jury of my peers. I haven't really entered into many competitions, so it was a really nice surprise to be recognized. Many thanks to my art directors Ed Johnson at Foreign Affairs and Claire Merchlinsky at The New York Times. The 1st one accompanied a piece by Jeff Yang about Asian American heroes in media representation, but for the main figure I made it a portrait of a family friend Yueh Chien, who went missing in the summer of 2021. As a way of processing her disappearance, I wanted everyone in the world to look at her face because at the time I felt like she wasn't being searched for hard enough. The 2nd one is for a book review centered around Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, who was purged from power and public life because he was sympathetic to student protestors during the Tiananmen crisis. He served for 2 years as leader of the CCP and General Secretary and was succeeded by Jiang Zemin, who passed away today.

#illustration #drawing #art #johnleedraws #john lee #society of illustrators #soi65

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The cat

#it's the cat #johnleedraws #art #drawing #john lee #cat

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Collages from weekly AP photos

#illustration #collage #art #AP #news #johnleedraws #john lee

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Some work in context. Man things have really changed since I started this tumblr. At first I was like, wow I wish someone would pay me to draw. Now I'm like: I wish someone would pay me to live in a tree forever.

#illustration #art #editorial #johnleedraws #john lee #artists on tumblr

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Split cover album art for Kishi Bashi's 10th Anniversary of 151a, with AD David Woodruff and fellow artist Hsiao-Ron Cheng. Original drawing on Rives BFK, color separations are done on tracing paper, and background is stitched together with running stitches and scanned.

#illustration #drawing #art #kishi bashi #151a #joyful noise #john lee #johnleedraws

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For Kaitlin Tremblay's piece about A Mortician's Tale and loss in the Endgame Sequences zine. AD Chris Kindred

#illustration #art #drawing #morticians tale #death #john lee #johnleedraws #endgamesequences

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Around 2 years ago to the day, I had one of my "purer" illustration things. I drew my fellow citizens while waiting in line to vote, and then cleaned them up the next day to run in the NYTimes Sketchbook.

#illustration #drawing #johnleedraws #john lee #election #democracy #art

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I remember it being a lot easier to have back and forth conversations on here but it really does a seem a lot clunkier after having been on bird app for so long.

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The Grumpy Bert Red Envelope show is coming up. I honestly can't believe this year is almost over.

#red envelope show #art #illustration #grumpy bert #红包 #johnleedraws #john lee #drawing

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For a piece by Irene Jiang in Joysauce about relationships, home and culture through the reference point of rice. AD Frankie Huang

#illustration #art #rice #drawing #johnleedraws #john lee

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Google streetview sketches of my family’s hometown Pozorrubio, Pangasinan.

#philippines #pozurrubio #johnleedraws #illustration #drawing #reportage #art #asian american